Leyla Aliyeva Discusses Ways to Promote Azerbaijani Art in the USA in New York
Leyla Aliyeva, Vice President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and founder of the IDEA (International Dialogue for Environmental Action) campaign, is visiting New York at the invitation of the U.S. “Children’s Cancer and Blood Foundation” (CCBF).
On November 2, Leyla Aliyeva visited the editorial office of the prestigious American magazine Interview. Founded in 1969 by the renowned American artist and film producer Andy Warhol, Interview traditionally features interviews with world-famous artists, musicians, actors, and fashion designers, fostering new and unconventional ways of thinking in society. The meeting with the Azerbaijani guest was attended by Peter Brant, head of Brant Publications, Inc., which publishes Interview and three other leading American art magazines, and Christopher Bollen, editor of Interview. Peter Brant gave Leyla Aliyeva a detailed overview of the magazine’s history and main topics. In turn, Leyla Aliyeva invited the Interview team to take a closer interest in Azerbaijan and expressed her confidence that the magazine’s readers would find plenty of new information and interesting news about Azerbaijani art, music, and fashion.
On the same day, Leyla Aliyeva visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Maryam Ikhtiyar, the museum’s senior researcher in Islamic art, briefed her on the exhibition “Art of the Islamic World,” which reopened on November 1 after extensive restoration. Leyla Aliyeva explored the new galleries showcasing 1,200 exhibits representing over a thousand years of culture from the Arab regions, Turkey, Iran, Central and South Asia. During the visit, prospects for collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum were discussed, including ideas on how Azerbaijani art could be better represented.
On November 2, Leyla Aliyeva also met with our compatriot living in New York, Norbert Yevdayev, editor of the Noviy Rubej newspaper and a member of the Union of Azerbaijani Artists. N. Yevdayev thanked Leyla Aliyeva and presented two paintings from his personal collection to be delivered to Azerbaijani art museums. The works, titled Motherhood and Abstract Composition, were created by the Baku-born American artist Nahum Chakbazov in 1945–46. Nahum Chakbazov’s works are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and other prominent American art institutions. Nobert Yevdayev stated that his aim in gifting these works to Azerbaijan was to highlight how successful a painter from Azerbaijan has become in the United States. The painting Motherhood will be displayed in the collection of the Azerbaijan State Museum of Art named after R. Mustafayev, while Abstract Composition will be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art.
